The Michigan Daily-Saturday, May 8, 1982-Page 9
That's the way it is for Lou Grant
LOS ANGELES (AP)- Ed Asner,
who plays the gruff newspaper editor
with the golden heart on TV's "Lou
Grant," said Friday he bitterly regrets
the series' cancellation but not his blunt
political activism.
"The ideal would have been for me to
totally contain my life away from the
show, my utterances away from the
show," Asner said in a telephone inter-
view from Denver, where he was atten-
ding a film. festival. "Unfortunately,
timing does not always permit silences
when we wish them.
"For that reason I greatly regret that
my speaking out should have helped
dampen the acceptance of the show ...
but I wouldn't have changed a thing."
CBS announced Thursday that "Lou
Grant" won't be back next fall. The
network at first simply deleted it from
autumn. listings, then attributed the
cancellation to poor ratings in the
program's fifth season.
Asner, 52, president of the Screen Ac-
tors Guild, said Feb. 15 that he was
supporting efforts to send medical aid
to war-ravaged El Salvador through
leftist guerrillas.
"Lou Grant" was rated 21st
nationally that week, but plunged to
56th the following week, followed by
rankings of 58th, 53rd, 41st, 37th and
41st.
The show also lost a sponsor, Kim-
berly-Clark, after Asner announced his
opposition to El Salvador's right-wing
government supported by the U.S.
government.
"I'm a little angry, a little bitter," he
said of the cancellation. "But by
breaking my silence perhaps I en-
couraged a few more people to break So lo
theirs. It's time for the quiescent '70s to Tribi
be over." Wald
The American Civil Liberties Union
of Southern California and the Los could be
Angeles Federation for Progress have because
announced a protest Monday night over executive
the cancellation at CBS Television City' said Thur
in Hollywood. But CB
They claim CBS dropped the Bud Gran
program because of Asner's political d Gra
views. do with th
"We would have hoped that we would "It was
never return to a time when an actor to make b
Records
AP Photo
ng for now. Ed Asner, seated, played Lou Grant, the crusty but loveable city editor at the fictional Los Angeles
une. Others in the critically acclaimed cast included second row, Mason Williams, Nancy Marchand, Robert
en, and Linda Kelsey. Third row Darryl Anderson, Allen Williams, and Jack Bannon.
threatened with not working
of his political views," ACLU
director Ramona Ripston
sday.
BS Entertainment president
t said politics had nothing to
e show's cancellation.
the toughest decision we had
because the show is a jewel in
our craft," Grant told the newspaper
Daily Variety on Thursday. ". . . The
fact is, its audience level deteriorated
badly in the last few months. Politics
had nothing to do with it; the ratings
were the problem."
Asner, elected president of the Screen
Actors Guild last year, has feuded
publicly with actor Charlton Heston and
other SAG conservatives over what
Heston terms inappropriate
politicization of the union.
Asner conceded that ratings have
dropped, but said that was due to lack
of promotion, pre-emptions by other
programming, positioning against
"cliff-hanger" Monday night football
games and specials, and a drift by
viewers to cable television.
Soft Cell -'Non-stop
Erotic Cabaret'
Depeche Mode 'Speak
and Spell' (Sire)
I always like some stuff on both of
these albums, and sometimes I even
like them in their entirely, but I'm not
so sure I want to go out on a limb for
either one of them. Especially after
repeated listening, Depeche Mode seem
too limited and Soft Cell too flawed to
warrant unqualified seals of approval.
The strange thing is to think back to
when Soft Cell and Depeche Mode had
similar sounds. "Memorabilia" for Soft
Cell and "New Life" for Depechs Mode
seemed to promise much more than
either band would later deliver in these
early bits of densely layered and am-
bigiously charged pieces of dance-
oriented electro-pop.
Since then, their paths have diverged
- Depeche Mode assuming the screw-
all disco-pop danceability of The
Human League and Soft Cell opting for
the neo-baroque mood-mongering of.
Orchestral Manoeuvres.
Although there are undeniable
moments of melodramatic passion and
poetic grace on Soft Cell's Non-stop
Erotic Cabaret, the majority of it
seems soured by an attempt to excuse
the throw-away technology of their
medium with overly grand and overly
obvious "statements."
And in the end, the duo doth protest
too much anyway, only proving in their
attempt to be relevant that they are far
more estranged from the human race
than we ever would have guessed. It
seems that the only way Soft Cell can
approach humanity is with a smug
cynicism that borders on out-and-out
misanthropy. So, minus the notable ex-
ceptions ("Tainted Love," "Say Hello,
Wave Goodbye," and "Bedsitter")
even the most impressively or-
chestrated tunes may leave a bitter af-
tertaste.
That said, it's hard to say whether
Depeche Mode's particular brand of
tasteless fluff is an improvement or not.
Certainly, like a fine sweet, its lack of
substantive value doesn't really detract
from its momentary pleasures, but too
much of it in one sitting will undoub-
tedly leave you . hungering for
somethingmore.
Unfortunately, they just seem to ladk
the stomach to take their electronics as
feverishly hard as bands like DAY. So in-
stead, they get a tinny, bottomless
sound that simply adds to the overall
cartoonish quality of their music. But,
then again, like the best Nancy strips,
Depeche Mode are the most delightful
at their most ridiculously inance.
In the end, it all comes down to which
you'd rather read - the funnies or a
sleazy sex-scandal tabloid. Frankly,
I'm partial to a bit of both, but I'm cer-
tainly not going to go around telling
everybody else about it.
-Mark Dighton
Spandu Ballet -'Diamond'
(Chrysalis)
As far as I'm concerned, you can
sand side two of this disc flat and use it
as a serving tray. But don't you dare.
fool around with side one - it's about
twenty minutes of the most actively
powerful stuff around.
It's hard to believe any! band silly
(maybe even stupid) enough to produce
pieces of pomp as freeze-dried an "In-
nocence and Science" and
"Missionary" could also be behind one-
of the most impressive dance sounds of
the day.
Granted, they did seem to stumble
onto the brashly brassy dance attack of
"Chant No. 1" by accident, and have
since held onto it with the conviction of
drowning men. However, I find enough
variation in the themes and enough
personality in the hooks on side one to
think that they might really be capable
* of writing songs. And the big King-
Crimson-meets-Brasil-'66 finish makes
me think they might also have some of
the necessary sense of humor about
what they do.
Then I turn over the record and get
disproven on both counts. Oh well, half
a great record in better than no great
record at all.
-M.D.